And by this I mean to the movies. From Mayor Michael Bloomberg‘s announcement about banning large-sized sodas from New York City last week, it seems he has not seen one since Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 documentary “Super Size Me.” In this film, Spurlock lived for a month on McDonald’s fast food and took the super-size option whenever it was offered. It took him 14 months after the experiment to return to his former weight and cholesterol levels. (McDonald’s later discontinued its “super-size” program.)
Mayor Bloomberg’s idea is to regulate the size of sugary drinks as a way to fight obesity. The Internet is on fire with people outraged about government intrusion into their lives! On June 1, Matt Lauer, host of “The Today Show,” seemed incredulous that the mayor would ban sodas and celebrate National Doughnut Day. The mayor stands for balance in food choices, one doughnut at a time.
But these folks miss the point. If you are worried about government intrusion into your food and drink choices, you are too late. By lack of regulation, the government has chosen what you (and kids in school lunch programs) can eat anywhere in the country and called it all healthy. And sometimes, the government defines and approves what it calls food, but when citizens become aware of what “it” really is, they ask questions and work for — demand — change.
Here’s the deal. If Mayor Bloomberg really wanted to fight the obesity epidemic, he needs to work to ban sugar, cane or high fructose corn syrup under any name from the entire food supply. This would be a good start. As my sister the nurse says, there is no research that proves or even demonstrates that sugar is essential to the human diet. (She says the same for wheat and soy.)